phoneguyinpgh

[phoneguyinpgh]

Since WHS Vail and Server 2008 are so similar, can the Centon card be installed in a Vail box with out running a virtual anything, and create the bridge between the NIC and the Centon card so it can be shared on the LAN, with out disrupting any of Vail’s WHS functionality?

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote=”htpc_user”]
Glad to hear.  Just wondering…will you take the Intel NIC out and go back to the onboard or continue using the Intel?
[/quote]

Not sure.  I don’t like messing w/ a system when it’s working correctly, but I might give it a try just to verify it wasn’t the Realtek NIC.  If it wasn’t then I have a spare 1G NIC in case something else blows up.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Fixed!  ;D

Well the new Intel NIC came.  Installed it and disabled the on board Realtek NIC.  Still no joy.  I tried every network reconfiguration I could think of, tried hibernate instead of sleep, still no joy.  As a last ditch effort I uninstalled Zone Alarm firewall and let the Windows firewall take over.  Problem fixed.  I had been running the Zone Alarm firewall for months, I don’t know why it suddenly broke access to my WHS when coming out of sleep mode, but it seems to be working fine now.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Does Centon have any schedule/date for when the firmware for tuner sharing will go public??  I ordered mine last week so I guess I’ll have it sometime next year.

[phoneguyinpgh]

I agree, if anything hide them with a flip down door.

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
[quote=”phoneguyinpgh”]
Bummer… ???  So then, another question…  Since you can’t run a virtual W7MC machine inside Vail, would it be better to build a small, always on W7MC machine to just do the recoding & streaming of TV and have it save the recorded program directly to the Vail box right after recording??
[/quote]

How many client PCs do you plan to have connected to it?  What are your concerns with installing it on your primary HTPC and letting that “share” the InfiniTV out?
[/quote]

I would like an always on machine that can do the recordings and share the tuners w/ my 2 HTPCs for live TV.  I don’t want to have one of the HTPCs on all the time, I like them to work like a piece of CE hardware which is how they work now.  However,  If Vail will share the tuners, currently my HTPCs record OTA programing then transfer it to my WHS for viewing on any machine.  So if Vail can host the tuners, I can assign a static IP to the network bridge port in the Vail machine and let the HTPCs do the recording and transfer it to the Vail machine’s storage for sharing.  I am about to build a new box to test Vail so this is a plus.

[phoneguyinpgh]

Yes I am in Pittsburgh, I have FIOS and want to have something larger that a 160MB drive for a DVR (and not pay to lease the STB).  Just about to order a Shuttle barebones and put a 3.1GHz Phenom II X2 and have it always on to do the recording/streaming to the HTPCs.  But no big rush so I try one of 2 Mikinho prefers.

[phoneguyinpgh]

I loved BSG and was digging Caprica.  I think Syfy killed it w/ the extra commercial breaks and by splitting up the season.  Also the fact that those guys would fund a movie like Sharktapuss tells me that they don’t have a clue as to what good Sci-fi is.

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
No Hyper-V within Vail unfortunately.  You are limited to W2K8 R2 or Aurora.

I’ll try to cover build scenarios, it is a little different to setup.  I’ll also cover RemoteFx (which I’m really digging btw…but it has a high hardware cost)
[/quote]

Bummer… ???  So then, another question…  Since you can’t run a virtual W7MC machine inside Vail, would it be better to build a small, always on W7MC machine to just do the recoding & streaming of TV and have it save the recorded programe directly to the Vail box right after recording??

[phoneguyinpgh]

That would be fantastic!!    That’s exactly what I’d like to do.  I got some parts for a new WHS Vail build, so being able to run a virtual W7MC inside the server would be fantastic.  Would your guide cover setting that up??  How powerful of a CPU would that require?? (I have a 3.1GHz dual core Phenom-II I was planing to use).

[phoneguyinpgh]

@ Mikinho.  I was interested in Installing the card in a WHS with the hopes that that the WHS would do any recording and stream live TV to the HTPCs.  It sounds like that will not work due to recording functionality not being built into WHSv1 or Vail.
Right now I can only record OTA TV, but when I do I immediately have it transfer that recording to the WHS so that I can watch on any PC and it works very well.
Might it be worth the trouble and $$$ to build a separate small box to sit along side the WHS, that is always on, with it’s sole function being to host the tuner card, record and stream TV?? 
I was thinking of something like this  [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101115]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101115[/url]  w/ W7x64, a Dual Core, 4G of ram to host the tuner.

Any thoughts??

[phoneguyinpgh]

Update;
First, I was wrong about the NICs in the HTPCs, they are both using nForce NICs which might explain why those back ups rarely fail.  The desktop is using a RealTek NIC.  I checked that all the settings were as advised above and it still did not fix the issue of losing connectivity to the networked drives.  After putting the system to sleep for several minutes and waking it back up again, the connectivity was lost, only a restart got the network drives back up.
So I think I’ll go shopping for a NIC.

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
Sorry I didn’t use the proper term.

When you go to the NIC properties it is under Configure -> Power Management (tab)

Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”
[/quote]

Found it (I feel sheepish now ::) ).  Will verify it’s setting after prison (work).

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote]However, the computers are waking, they just loose connectivity to networked drives.  I did browse some 1G NICs last night, some reviewers on NewEgg note some compatibility issues w/ Intel NICs and AMD mother boards, so I’ll have to do more research on them.[/quote]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
My systems do this, too.  After a couple of seconds, the network connections are restored, however.  I see this first hand when I wake it up for watching TV.  Are you able to wake the computer yourself via other methods?  You could try setting the backup to a time when you’ll be there to watch it and see what happens.  It may not be waking up at all.
[/quote]

I can wake the computers by pressing any key on the keyboard (my usual method). I’ve never tried to wake by any remote/network means.  I do not have any of these computers set for remote desktop.  Also the fact that my laptop wakes and backs up flawlessly and has never lost connectivity to the networked drives leads me to suspect the NIC or as Mikinho stated, a power setting for the NIC.  I will check those settings after I get out of prison (work).

[phoneguyinpgh]

[quote=”Skirge01″]
Sounds like an S3 issue.  You didn’t specify XP, Vista, or Windows 7, but I know Windows 7 has about 3 options for the NIC.  Also, ensure that the BIOS is set to allow the NIC to wake the computer.

If you do decide on another NIC, I’d go with Intel.
[/quote]
Actually I did say i was running Windows 7 64 bit  (W7x64), but I believe the computers wake themselves with a wake timer.  However, the computers are waking, they just loose connectivity to networked drives.  I did browse some 1G NICs last night, some reviewers on NewEgg note some compatibility issues w/ Intel NICs and AMD mother boards, so I’ll have to do more research on them.

[quote=”Mikinho”]
The Realtek 1G has had a lot of reported problems lately.  So far the only work-arounds have been to either 1- use a different driver, I believe 2 updates back, or 2- disable the sleep and hibernate settings for the NIC under power settings.
[/quote]

I quickly checked the power options and can’t seem to find an option like that for my NIC.  I’ll check again after work, maybe I missed something.

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